Strategic Communications in Change Management: Aligning Messaging for Success

Have you ever experienced change fatigue? According to 2024 insights from Gartner last year, the majority of organizations continue to experience major firmwide changes in recent years and believe that this will only continue for future years. Between COVID-19 and intense changes in economics, politics, industry disruptors and even climate, change is constant, and the need to evolve is ongoing. Communicators and PR experts must navigate all changes in a strategic sense, so it’s no wonder that we see so many acquiring change management designations (Myself included!).

For those who are new to change management, consider this like a variation of project management, but with much more emphasis and thought on how to guide individuals and teams through strategic transitions to ensure long-term success. With more emphasis on the organizational and people side of change to deliver results, change management is a very valuable skill and perspective that considers human experience more intentionally, accommodating it to be successful. For those interested in change management, here are some elements to consider within your own planning.

Is everyone aware of the role they play in this change?

Prior to rolling out a major change, having the leaders closest to the project looped in internally on messages is very important. For example, crucial audiences like employees, investors and board members feel most confident in hearing business strategy updates from the person at the top (often the chief executive officer or a senior vice president) who is overseeing or “sponsoring” the change. This can look like messaging that speaks to the “why,” advantages of implementing and risks of not doing so.

Research from Prosci shows sponsors to be so crucial to change efforts that they can make or break an initiative, meaning their self-awareness and ongoing engagement are very important. This is further reinforced by research indicating that “active and visible executive sponsorship” has consistently been the most significant factor in successful change initiatives for over a decade, as indicated for the 11th consecutive study on this topic.

Regarding more direct impacts of change, think about who the audience wants to hear from most. For example, employees typically prefer to hear from immediate supervisors and people leaders. With a major organizational change, think of a CEO’s message as being rooted in comfort and clarity through a bigger picture strategy. At the same time, the people leaders provide this comfort through specific changes in the day-to-day experience. There are different sides to the change, but both are important!

Are you proactively identifying and handling resistance?

Change management is about preparing, equipping and supporting individuals moving through changes to ensure successful adoption. An organizational change is only as successful as the people driving and responding to it. This means that everyone needs to contribute for this to be meaningful and effective. For example, driving an internal change that only 80% of the employee base adopts is not considered successful or complete.

Proactively identifying which groups might resist is important. I spoke on this a few years ago with Staffbase through the hypothetical example of implementing a new intranet solution and how this might see resistance from IT. Looping them in early as stakeholders to ensure they feel heard, while identifying what’s in it for them, will help to ease perception, resistance and ensure that the intranet solution adopted.

Per Prosci, it’s even possible these same groups could be positioned as advocates, in recognizing and addressing their resistance early. When people feel heard and see why it’s in their best interest to collaborate, successful results are more likely to be achieved. 

How are you considering communications channels?

Careful consideration of where your audience is most inclined to be receptive is crucial to ensuring their awareness and desire to help drive the change. Offering frequent engagement opportunities across multiple channels like town halls with Q&A, brainstorming sessions, articles and direct prompts from a people leader to employees can ensure that the audience is aligned to the change.

According to Prosci, this multi-faceted approach means that people from all roles, departments and perspectives are more likely to stay informed. As change management is, in a way, the emotional intelligence side of project management and thinking about how every individual is most likely to connect and receive information.

Are you staying on top of post-performance to sustain adoption?

As mentioned above, project completion is not the indicator of success, it’s about what happens next in the post-performance state. As this Prosci blog points out “Are you getting things done or getting things adopted?” If a change is implemented and adopted by 100% of people but then forgotten with time, this indicates a lack of success through inconsistency or lack of reinforcement. For example, knowing the sponsor might be too busy to stay involved in change sustainment activities may require a transfer of responsibilities to another senior leader. Remaining connected to audience sentiments and reiterating crucial messages and certain change activities is also necessary. A proactive hint that post-performance may be a challenge or major focus for PR experts is seeing senior leaders opt in and out of an initiative based on availability. This is indicative that change is seen at the senior levels as “nice to have” rather than essential to success, which significantly challenges the likelihood of results.

There are a lot of ties between change management and public relations, especially as both teams focus primarily and proactively on the people side of change. Utilizing practices and tools from both focuses will strengthen the likelihood of project success, organizational change and stakeholder alignment. Organizations can transform change from a challenge into an opportunity by prioritizing these areas.

What has been your experience with managing change engagement? Join the conversation and share your insights.

Any questions, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or through my company website, Strand + Strategy Communications.